So, SC2 comes out, I got it right on release and played quite a lot for awhile... Back to the grind like in the SC:BW days - but I had family so probably a bit less. However, my girlfriend still joked about SC2 being 'my other girlfriend'... Anyway, with a bunch of friends playing too, it was really easy to be motivated to get better. Remember how competitive I was? Well starting out, one of my best mates Matt (aka SmokyMcPot) and I would consistantly trade wins, pushing each other to get better & better. I still played Protoss at this time (I was also a protoss player in SC:BW so I stuck it out, however I later realised I was more suited stylistically to Zerg) - I remember practising and trying to work out faster build to get DTs or safest way to expand to 2 bases against Zerg or Terran - the guiding rules to the game etc. So much to learn it was amazing. And with a good friend to measure my improvement against along with general ladder rank it was probably the only time I was really motivated to get better at the game.

I probably got to the point where I played too much, but made sure I'd take my family on a trip and refocus on the important stuff when ever that started to happen. While I was studying full time, I did have part time work and had saved up a bunch during 2007/08 when I was playing poker competitively (at a decent level, I made a good living from poker, but it too used up a ridiculous amount of time). I needed another way to put my passion into SC2 that didn't use too much of my time, I knew I'd never be actually competitive at the game...

I actually remember stumbling across SC2SEA once or twice looking for content on builds etc - usually hoping to find TL Articles and always being put off because my google search usually led me to The Grand Master Manual or other guides on this strange site. I'd started following competitive SC2 and knew about mOOnGLaDe and a few other Australian personalities so it wasn't until I saw mOOnGLaDe chatting in the chatbox that I thought - 'woah, that's glade, he is just talking to people on this site, that is cool' - that I registered for sc2sea and started becoming a member of the community.

Before SC2SEA I was active on a few other forums, so I was not shy and quite happy to just join in the discussions. So I jumped straight into it, I've always had a pretty level head when it came to fairness and general discussions, I was relatively intelligent so often able to participate in health debate quite freely and form a sound argument on either side of the discussion. So it was natural that I started to became - as nirvAnA once put it - 'a voice of reason' .Once I started being known around the forum I really wanted to develop, almost a brand for myself. I took a professional approach to my conduct.

I remember starting to get a bit of notoriety and eventually going to a LAN in Brisbane, it was a qualifying event for an ACL I recall, mOOnGLaDe was there, it would've been the first time I met him and I'm pretty sure I fan boyed pretty hard. At the time, I thought it was strange that a bunch of people walked up to Glade and I while chatting and interrupted to say "Excuse me, you're ChadMann - right?" I thought 'yeah so what, this is ******* moonglade man!!' but in reflection, he was a Brisbane local - they'd probably met him a bunch...But at that time I realised I met something to the scene, and I really didn't want to let the community down. I feel I went on to make a pretty big impact on the SC2 community - good or bad I really put a lot of my life into this community and I'm so thankful for all the opportunities I've had.

The clan leagues were amazing. For most of the scene that have been around for years will all agree these were some of the best times we all had with SC2. My first season in the clan leagues was in the BSG Season 2 - taking a team of clanless players to win the whole thing. Such an amazing series of games in the playoffs and will always be a massively fond memory for me. http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=2378

The roster was anchored by team ace Suman, who I'd come 2nd to in dox run Pro/Am cup restricted to to players. I later found out that suman was smurfing and actually had a Master League account. I lost so much respect for him and never looked back to the clanless roster. Losing that cup Dox put on was depressing as I'd put in a shitload of practice and had some amazing games up until the final (Special mention to Fridge, what a mate ).

The [TA] guys (for those that don't know, TA or Terror Australis was the #1 Clan in SEA, all the best players started out there and the environment the clan produced to improve and have fun was awesome.

I recall miraculously winning the first round of some community tournament cast by Kelly Milkies and some dude I can remember and for the second round, being on Stream cast by them and the TA stream dream team verses probably the best Thai player for a long time, if not of all time. 'Red Archon' an absolute terran beast. I was so amazingly nervous during this game I kept making different tech, thinking 'what if he attacks with X, I should get Y - all on 2 base.. (I was protoss at this time) and it was horrible, I got a warp prism, didn't use it and did all sorts of amazingly stupid things for a gold league scrub. The TA guys loved this, they cast this game as one of the funniest miss-matches ever and Red Archon swiftly stomped me into the ground. But for them, it started a running joke. I can't really remember how it progressed but I'd check out their streams and they thought I fanned hard for them, really they just had the best content in the region at the time... I went to EB Expo on the Gold Coast and watched the 2011 WCG qualifier (wiki), meeting most of the TA guys there (Pinder, deth and Rossi) - along with all the other amazing players at the event. After that, I think it was discussed that I wasn't a weird nerd and that I probably needed TA's help to get good at SC2 so riiChard messaged me and asked if I wanted to join - TA being the best clan there was, I was stoked to be part of the clan.

TA was an amazing clan, a big part of why they had so many talented players was the culture and support within the clan. The team speak was almost always full of talented players talking about the game, theory crafting and helping each other. Along with a fiercely competitive drive to continue to be the #1 clan in Australia. A title I believe the guys held through-out the era of SC2SEA Team/Clan Leagues. For those that don't know, after nGen ended, most of the top talent was on TA; EdgE, Rossi, deth, mafia, light, SenSei, Pinder, yang, Spider8, Fight, Spud and Voices - just to name a few. I owe a lot to these guys, some of my fondest memories in this game have been while hanging out with these guys at events or on team speak. Many of them were like brothers and they will all hold a special place in my heart for years to come. That video we all had to watch to be initiated into the clan won't tho, **** that shit....(don't ask).

So by now, I'm realatively well known in the scene, I know how the top talent is forming and some idea about how the competitive scene works, who beats who, who has talent and I'm starting to develop a good sense of the competitive scene. This sense ended up becoming quite an obsession of mine - there was no luck involved into how accurate I was with my SEAbet predictions - I think I still have a massive lead for All Time. Anyway, I used to gather everyones replays, from anywhere I could - I still have a massive database of replays on a portable drive.

However, I digress - a good mate of mine, that used to come with me to the LANs back in the day when I beat everyone up in SC:BW was at the time playing on the Battlefield roster of Carnage eSports and they were interested in picking up an SC2 roster. So he asked me 'you know about SC2, can you put together a team?' I really thought about this as I knew with how obsessive I can get that this was a big investment and eventually contacted my very good friend Cam 'EdgE' Murrin to help me pick the rest of the line up.

For me - one of the most important features of a team and managing the growth of competitive SC2 players is the environment they are in. Every member of the roster has to get along, support each other and if there is a bit of competition to improve amongst them - even better! Cam and I ended up picking a group of up-coming talent and experienced vets to help them grow - how ever as we put this team together the most important feature was - can we all get along?? this roster was;

EdgE Spud/Voices SenSei JimDiddy Fourby tbk Fenner Dippa neKo

The roster was split but the first four as the 'A' team and the others as the up-coming B team of seriously talented players. These guys were awesome and their skill started to grow immediately. Shortly after though, SenSei and tbk stepped down and SanG was recruited to the line up.

Few months past and the strong competition already established at the top of the scene started to demotivate a few guys, but we also picked up HuT and Ninja - (Note: I've been on a team with HuT since ) We bonded really well, at our first LAN for ACL Sydney we did ourselves proud and got exceptionally drunk watching the rest of the tournament (Razer Water imba).

I've got mad respect for Cam, he really helped me along my journey - also taught me quite a bit about SC2 and even BroodWar - thanks bud, you believed in me and its taken me a long way, thanks for always being there for me. I know that given the right circumstances you would've been the best player this region has even seen, your mechanical skill I haven't seen yet in any player I've ever worked with. An absolute beast

All the other guys were such amazing influences for me and I hope we all learnt heaps from each other, SenSei was my Brisbane bud, Spud just a hilarious guy, JimDiddy was a ******* zealot in a choke, Fourby is also another one of those crazy good micro talent players that for some reason never quite made it - but **** me he was close! Fenner the famous OverWatch Streamer, I gave him his start and will support him for ever, something about his character and attitude to work hard for his dreams and how he devotes himself is so impressive and I've always been so amazed by his work ethic and honestly, will support him for life. Dippa is an awesome guy and I have always been thankful for his support. neKo was a mad lad and I actually quite miss him.. tbk kinda vanished - no idea what happened to that guy, but if he's out there... sup?...

HuT, we're Nick brothers for life - thanks for everything mate, I'm actually really missing being your team mate. Enjoying hanging out with you when we can and we got so much history these days I hope we always keep in touch. Ninja my man, you gave up on the ride of competitive SC2 and when you left, you left a massive hole - you were so ******* talented and certainly had signs of being one of the best. For those that don't know Ninja - think NXZ before NXZ. Understudy to PiG and exceptionally talented that had that big break out performance and made everyone take notice. Good luck with everything Alex, you're an awesome guy and I hope we get to hang out again someday.

So... I started out just managing the SC2 team, then few people realised I knew marketing and quickly became the Sponsor coordinator and then ran the eSports side of Carnage. When I joined, Carnage was being run by some guy (I can't remember his name) and he was a dodgey ****. Everyone in the organisation thought so, he was one of those silver tounge guys who talks all sorts of amazing good shit and never delivers. Jumps into teamspeak saying he's getting a stack of gear from Razer and for everyone to put in their order - then nothing turns up. Turns out it did, to his house... and then he sold it and kept the money. Yep, he stole all the gear the team got from their major sponsor and sold it - what a dickhead. We caught him, I asked for a list of transfers from Razer and realised 90% of it over the last year didn't arrive and then just needed proof it was him - one of the guys rocked up to his house and found a bunch of very distinctive Razer boxes outside and when they pushed their way into the front door after he answered their knock, saw a pile of razer shit. He was swiftly booted and a replacement needed to step up.

Lucky guy I was got the gig a few months after joining the organisation to run the whole thing - a bit more than I wanted to or should've chewed off. I'd worked really hard over those months to not only tidy up damaged relations with Razer but to have the team moved up the Razer sponsorship ladder from general sponsorship to a member of the elite Team Razer. This gave us more support from Razer and for me was a massive honour. Dealing with Razer was really hard though, they changed over reps a lot and I had to develop a new relationship with the rep and work out how they wanted to run things. They were also based in Singapore and it often took a long time to get things done.

After a few months of running the org and burning out - I was offered a spot to bring a SC2 roster to Frenetic Array - for those that weren't around in the early days, fray was the big org in Australia (fray and Immunity were the biggest and best, by far!) and it was a really hard decision. Do I stick with the org I've helped build, with the big work load but the pride I had for Carnage was huge.... OR do I swap to the big org with everything already established and move to fray. It was honestly something I thought about for a few weeks before deciding that the guys on the team would have a better environment at fray and hopefully I could focus on SC2 more and give them more direct support.

I reached out to Teknicity manager MezjE and offered him and his roster the opportunity to take over my spot at Carnage. And the rest of the Carnage org was going to pick up where I left off with the organisation running and sponsorship management. Razer are pretty fickle and required monthly reporting - this wasn't done and I fear things went down hill really fast for them and the whole org started falling apart pretty quickly. Lasting about 3 months it really hurt to see this team I'd put so much work into fall apart without me. I'm so sorry to MezjE and the boys.

I just wanted to add a little story about a sponsor Carnage got while I was running the org - Tech Masters. An online PC parts store set up by a guy called Wesley Collier (Yes, that one - the guy that owns Avant Gaming). This guy was also, full of half baked promises and talk. He offered us a decent financial sponsorship and we supported them from the start - offering to do reviews and helping him develop his website etc... I helped him design various logo's, got coders to help with his site and in general listen to his shit for months... He delivered on ZERO of his promises, lied and I feel probably stole a lot of the review gear he was given to send out by various companies. This guy is dodgey and I'm sure he skimmed a lot of money off the top along the way to his position now as the owner of one of the biggest and most supported teams in Australia - controversial, but I dare him to deny it.

I'm very pleased to add, that at the recent IEM Sydney CS:GO event, at the Twitch after party - which I somehow managed to snag four VIP bands for. There was a bunch of guys hanging out the front after the event, myself, Forge, the Avant LoL team and a few others. During this conversation I 'checked out' his (Wez's) awesome Twitch all access pass for IEM Sydney, removed it from the clip holding it to his neck and enjoyed its benefits for day 2 of IEM Sydney. Thanks Wesley, way too drunk to notice me casually taking this.... I guess you finally gave me something after all. After the ex-Carnage owner, Wez was the 2nd guy I lost all respect for in eSports in Australia and I am shocked this guy is still involved in the scene - he stole Avant from MKR too, but that is another story...

Thanks for reading! - let me know if you liked it and please, any questions I would be happy to answer them. I hope you enjoy part 3, where we get into the juicy drama, the Hardy boys, My boy Miley and some insight into how dodgey eSports was in the 'early days' with the highs and lows of Frenetic Array and moving to SYF till now. Until then, much love and good luck in your journey.

Thinking about him/Avant made me go back and look for the blog I did post-AVCon 2013 (http://www.sc2sea.com/blogs/showentr...searchid=13408), I remember him being angry with me after I posted this on Skype, and I worded my "go **** yourself" in the politest possible way

I've been playing SC:Remastered pretty much nonstop since release (got almost 2000 games under my belt, switching from SC2 Protoss to SC:BW Terran. It's been a rough transition). I never really delved into Brood War past 2001 in any competitive sense, and I was far too young at that point to immerse myself in the full ensemble of skillsets that would eventually develop Brood War into a highly competitive and insanely technical mechanical monster of a game.

However, I spent years and years playing SC2. I got very, very good (top masters, was on a professional team, was in talks about getting shipped to Poland then Korea for a couple of months before I just stopped playing), though not phenomenal or top level by any means. I played nonstop, studied nonstop, gave up everything in my life to get better at StarCraft 2. It was what I did. Every day, all day. It was my life.

I even put myself through a physical training regimen to help mental clarity and reduce any RSI I was receiving through intense 10-12 hour daily session of starcraft. I slept 7 hours a night--the minimum to receive full clarity and full stamina--usually between 8-9PM and 3-4AM (can't miss GSL guys). I put my best foot forward trying my damnedest to improve.

Playing Terran in SC1 for what, 2-ish months now? That has had a larger impact on my game than any one thing I did for SC2 while I was playing in the competitive spectrum.

Hell, any TWO things I did.

The crazy thing? I haven't improved THAT much at Brood War. I'm maybe 300-350 points higher than where I started (I think I dipped to 1150 before I started winning--granted I didn't actually know any build orders for my first 50 games or so), and that doesn't seem like a whole hell of a lot to me. But my APM in SC2 has gone up 50 points and my ability to macro is so much stronger than it was. I stopped playing SC2 almost completely while I was playing Brood War...now I come back, and it seems like I'm having a ridiculously easy time in games. I feel like I'm back at Masters level, and I was struggling to stay in Diamond when I started playing SC:Remastered (a nice batch of games will tell the truth on whether or not I'm back that far up--I feel like I may be a bit too far behind the curve on the metagame for that feeling to hold true).

Simply put, I've had to focus on my mechanics, multitasking and single unit value control so much that my macro has increased exponentially and my game sense is extremely well honed. I have never seen this much improvement in such a short time since I broke Masters the first time around.

I think I may start to force myself to play more SC2--partially to see where exactly I land on the ladder, but also, if I can improve this much in such a short time then maybe playing both games will help me get back to the level I enjoyed playing at. Maybe there's a chance I can get back to the competitive sphere before I'm in my 30s.

I never realized how much Brood War trains you to sharpen every skill in your repertoire until recently.

Even the smallest donations help keep sc2sea running! All donations go towards helping our site run including our monthly server hosting fees and sc2sea sponsored community tournaments we host. Find out more here.